2022 Midterm Elections: NO RED WAVE! - GOP Takes U.S. House; Dems Keep U.S. Senate

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A new Latino media group is buying up — and shaking up — Spanish-language radio​

Univision is selling many of its Spanish-language radio stations — including Miami's ultraconservative Radio Mambí — to a group led by Democrats.​

armandoperezrouramambi.jpeg

Radio Mambi
One of Radio Mambi's original voices, the late Armando Perez Roura.
Creating a beachhead in a broadcast market often dominated by conservative or right-wing programming, a new and Latino-owned, bipartisan but Democrat-led media group will announce Friday it's purchasing 18 major Spanish-language radio stations owned by the TelevisaUnivision network — including Miami's Radio Mambí.

WLRN is here for you, even when life is unpredictable. Our journalists are continuing to work hard to keep you informed across South Florida. Please support this vital work. Become a WLRN member today. Thank you.

WLRN has learned that the Latino Media Network, or LMN — headed by Stephanie Valencia, a Latino outreach director for former President Barack Obama, and Democratic activist Jess Morales Rocketto — has signed a "definitive agreement" to buy the stations for $60 million. The media startup has launched after raising an initial $80 million.

A Univision spokesperson confirmed the sale.

The AM and FM stations are located in 10 of the country's largest Latino markets, including Miami, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, Houston and Las Vegas.

LMN says it has secured financing from "leading Latino investors" as well as Lakestar Finance, an investment group associated with businessman-philanthropist George Soros.

Other prominent LMN investors and advisers include Hollywood actress Eva Longoria, former Florida Republican Party chair Al Cárdenas, former Miami-Dade College President Eduardo Padrón and radio entrepreneur Tom Castro.

“Latinos are constantly trying to navigate the ocean of information," Valencia told WLRN, arguing that the station purchases aren't politically motivated. "In some cases that is disinformation, in some cases that is very one-sided communication.

"In the Latino community radio still plays such an important part, and in places like Florida it obviously plays a critically important part...From some of the research we've seen, upwards of 70% of Latinos are getting their news and information about politics and elections from places like YouTube" that are often less than reliable.

Either way, Valencia argues Latinos "are looking for trusted voices.”

The question now, given LMN's Democratic ties, is what sort of voice will replace the programming at stations like the ultraconservative Radio Mambí (WAQI 710 AM). It's long been an institution in Miami's Cuban exile community. But, like many Spanish-language stations here, it's also been criticized for pushing right-wing and sometimes racist disinformation .

Democrats have long chafed at much of that agenda, particularly in 2020 when talk show hosts at stations like Mambí labeled then-presidential candidate Joe Biden a "socialista" who would turn the U.S. into a left-wing dictatorship like Venezuela's.

Valencia said that will change, but insisted Mambí will not adopt a left-wing bent under LMN.

“There are elements of Radio Mambí that are really important to preserve," Valencia said. "It has been an important part of the community and experience in Miami.

"But we do believe in...balanced journalism.”

Until now, Democrats and Latino liberals and moderates had focused their efforts and resources on monitoring Spanish-language radio outlets instead of trying to own stations themselves.

"As Latinos drive population growth in the United States...[and] with minority media on the decline, now is the time to be investing in more resources to create content for Latinos by Latinos," Valencia said in a statement earlier Friday.

The sales must still meet Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval before LMN can fully operate the stations. That process could last well into 2023.
 
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Opinion A Democratic ‘Contract With America’ for 2022
Perry Bacon

Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), then the House minority whip, delivers remarks on the GOP's so-called Contract With America in Washington on Sept. 27, 1994. (John Duricka/AP)
Ahead of November’s midterm elections, Democrats should offer a straightforward, comprehensive agenda and commit to passing it if they keep control of Congress (or, in the case of the Senate, gain true control). Such an agenda could mobilize the party’s base, woo swing voters and, most important, guarantee that we don’t see a repeat of the demoralizing do-little Washington of the past two years.

The Republican Party isn’t fit to lead, and most voters know it — that’s why Joe Biden won the presidency. But all those 2020 Biden voters shouldn’t be expected to turn out for two more years of Joe Manchin III (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) blocking most legislation in the Senate, sometimes joined by moderate Democrats in the House. Case in point: The response from some congressional Democrats to the threat to Roe v. Wade being overturned has not been an urgent, aggressive legislative push but buck-passing — essentially, “You voters need to elect even more Democrats, then we might do something.”

Democrats should level with voters. Instead of trying to convince us that Biden’s first two years were great, they should just admit that they have fallen short and be frank about the problem: There was never really a Democratic “trifecta,” because Manchin and Sinema are more independents than they are Democrats.

They should be clear, too, about the solution: a Senate with at least 52 Democrats and a House with at least 218 Democrats. If they get that, they can say, they will pass a specific agenda, something like this:

Eliminate the filibuster.
A national law guaranteeing a right to an abortion in the first trimester and in all cases of rape and incest.
A democracy reform law mandating independent commissions to draw state and congressional districts lines free of gerrymandering; vote-by-mail and two weeks of early voting; proportional representation through multi-member congressional districts; and measures to prevent election subversion.
A ban on the sale of military-style weapons such as AR-15 rifles and high-capacity magazines, along with universal background checks for gun sales.
A minimum income tax of at least 20 percent on billionaires.
A ban on members of Congress buying individual stocks.
National marijuana legalization.
A climate change plan that puts the United States on a path to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
A required civics and life-skills course for high school seniors, with the same curriculum throughout the country.
Voluntary term limits of 12 years in Congress for all Democrats (six terms in the House, two in the Senate).
What connects these ideas? First, many of them are already popular. The civics and life-skills course, in particular, should appeal to Democrats, independents and even Republicans.

Second, they directly confront America’s biggest problem: the radicalized Republican Party and how our political system gives a small bloc of GOP voters, the party’s donors and its elected officials veto power over the preferences of most Americans, including many Republicans.

Third, they acknowledge this stark reality: The United States is experiencing a non-military, uncivil war that the Democrats must win.

The Republican agenda of expanding gun rights, narrowing voting rights and functionally abolishing abortion rights doesn’t seem coherent or logical until you view it as an agenda of White male Christian hegemony. Then it fits together perfectly. The Democrats must stop trying to duck the so-called culture wars and instead fight hard to win them. There is no middle ground between White male Christian hegemony and multiracial, multicultural social democracy — and the Democrats shouldn’t be shy about using their power to impose the latter, since it’s what a clear majority of Americans want.

But there is a catch, and it’s where the last item on my list comes in.

A Democratic agenda like this won’t be credible, particularly to voters who aren’t hardcore Democrats, if implementation relies on the same people who have long been in charge. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (Md.), Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (S.C.) and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) have been in party leadership almost my entire adult life. As people who seem desperate to hang on to power even as they decline in effectiveness, they epitomize the problems with Washington. They should all pledge to step down and make room for new congressional leadership if the Democrats retain majorities, as Pelosi has already implied that she will.

Term limits for members would have to be voluntary, because it’s not clear that they are constitutional. But a promise of new leadership on Capitol Hill, term limits for all members, a billionaires’ tax, a ban of members owning individual stocks and electoral reforms like multimember districts all push in the same direction — an acknowledgement that America’s economic and political establishments have failed and need to be changed.

I intentionally didn’t include a lot of economic policies on this list. Biden last year leaned into the idea that proposals such as the child tax credit in the economic stimulus would create a groundswell of support for Democrats. But there is little evidence that political theory panned out. Inflation, which I realize is a huge problem, poses a different kind of challenge. There is little evidence Democrats know how to address it, and even less that voters trust them on the issue.

I understand, too, that the Supreme Court, under its current membership, would likely strike down many of these proposals. We need court reform, probably something like the proposal of legal writer Elie Mystal to create a 29-member high court. But the case for Congress and the president reforming the Supreme Court would be much stronger if most Americans thought the legislative and executive branches were doing a good job. Basically no one outside of hardcore Democrats believes that now.

The Democrats can’t call this agenda a “Contract With America” because Republicans already used that 28 years ago. Something like “Promises to the People” would work fine. But whatever the slogan, the message should be clear: We failed, we will do better and we will put new people in charge who are better than we were.

Perry Bacon Jr. is a Washington Post columnist. Before joining The Post in May 2021, Perry had stints as a government and elections writer for Time magazine, The Post's national desk, theGrio and FiveThirtyEight. He has also been been an on-air analyst at MSNBC and a fellow at New America. He grew up in Louisville and lives there now. Twitter
 
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Expectations can reality is always interesting.

If you said at the start of 2021 that at the 2022 midterms that dems would have ended Covid lockdowns, made the vaccine and boosters free and available for all who want it, provided an additional stimulus and extended enhanced unemployment, passed an infrastructure bill and provided broad and targeted student debt relief most folks would she happy.

But here we are :pachaha:
 
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